Thomas Hood was an English poet, journalist, and humorist whose comic verse solidified his place within literary history (Jerrold, 7). Hood edited various periodicals including: The Gem (1829), the Comic Annual (1830), the //New Monthly Magazine// (1841), and Hood's Magazine (1843) ("Hood, Thomas"). Hood was born on May 23, 1799 at 31 Poultry (Cheapside), in the parish of St. Mildred's, in the city of London (Jerrold, 12). His father, also Thomas Hood, was a reputable bookseller and publisher with Scottish heritage (Jerrold,12) while his mother, Elizabeth Sands, "came from a well-known London family of engravers" (Flint, para.1). With a large family to care for Thomas and Elizabeth Hood raised their family of two sons and four daughters "James, Thomas, Elizabeth, Anne, Jessie and Catherine" (Jerrold, 9) above Thomas' father's bookshop (Reid, 10). Walter Jerrold notes in his biographical novel Thomas Hood: His Life and Times that "[i]f it were from their father-and the circumstances of their environment-that the young Hoods got their early leaning towards art and letters; it was from their mother, apparently, that they inherited the fatal scourge of consumption" (10). Several members of the Hood family were claimed by consumption including Thomas' older brother James.
Thomas Hood was an English poet, journalist, and humorist whose comic verse solidified his place within literary history (Jerrold, 7). Hood edited various periodicals including: The Gem (1829), the Comic Annual (1830), the //New Monthly Magazine// (1841), and Hood's Magazine (1843) ("Hood, Thomas"). Hood was born on May 23, 1799 at 31 Poultry (Cheapside), in the parish of St. Mildred's, in the city of London (Jerrold, 12). His father, also Thomas Hood, was a reputable bookseller and publisher with Scottish heritage (Jerrold,12) while his mother, Elizabeth Sands, "came from a well-known London family of engravers" (Flint, para.1). With a large family to care for Thomas and Elizabeth Hood raised their family of two sons and four daughters "James, Thomas, Elizabeth, Anne, Jessie and Catherine" (Jerrold, 9) above Thomas' father's bookshop (Reid, 10). Walter Jerrold notes in his biographical novel Thomas Hood: His Life and Times that "[i]f it were from their father-and the circumstances of their environment-that the young Hoods got their early leaning towards art and letters; it was from their mother, apparently, that they inherited the fatal scourge of consumption" (10). Several members of the Hood family were claimed by consumption including Thomas' older brother James.
Works Cited
Flint, Joy. “Hood, Thomas (1799–1845).” Joy FlintOxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . 29 Jan. 2015
<http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/view/article/13681>.
Hood, Thomas. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Reid, John Cowie. Thomas Hood. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1963. 10. Print.
Jerrold, Walter, 1865-1929. Thomas Hood: His Life and Times. London: A. Rivers, 1907. 7. Print.